Youth Unsuspicious of Evil
O bend thy head, sweet morning flow'r!And look not up so fresh and bright!The keen, harsh wind, the heavy show'r,Will spoil thy beauties ere the night.
I grieve to see thee look so gay.And so unconscious of thy lot,For gloom and tempests wait thy day,And thou, unhappy, fear'st it not!
Thy tender leaflets all unfold,Their colours ripen and refine,Become most lovely to behold,And, ah! most apt to shrink and pine.
Then, bend thy head, sweet morning flow'r!I grieve to see thee look so gay!Close thy soft wings against the show'r,And wait a more auspicious day!
About this text
Youth Unsuspicious of Evil is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #9998; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Matilda Betham, Youth Unsuspicious of Evil, in Poems (1808), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9998, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/betham-poems/youth-unsuspicious-of-evil.html, id L23534.
Form and metre
Youth Unsuspicious of Evil is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB flow'rA · brightB · show'rA · nightB
- 2 ABAB gayA · lotB · dayA · notB
- 3 ABAB unfoldA · refineB · beholdA · pineB
- 4 ABAB flow'rA · gayB · show'rA · dayB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O bend thy head, sweet morning flow'r! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And look not up so fresh and bright! | 8 | ········ |
| The keen, harsh wind, the heavy show'r, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Will spoil thy beauties ere the night. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I grieve to see thee look so gay. | 8 | ········ |
| And so unconscious of thy lot, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For gloom and tempests wait thy day, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And thou, unhappy, fear'st it not! | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Thy tender leaflets all unfold, | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Their colours ripen and refine, | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Become most lovely to behold, | 8 | ˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| And, ah! most apt to shrink and pine. | 8 | ········ |
| Then, bend thy head, sweet morning flow'r! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I grieve to see thee look so gay! | 8 | ········ |
| Close thy soft wings against the show'r, | 8 | ········ |
| And wait a more auspicious day! | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.